How can I improve cueing in a straight line?

[johnjohnson123]

Hey guys,

I had a few coaching lessons and he sorted out my technique pretty well and I have been practising lots. I am much more consistent now over short to mid distances but once I am in to long potting territory I am terrible. I want to keep improving my straight cueing but I am not really a fan of doing long blues, I mean just a slight difference in aiming will throw the blue off anyway and I think did I aim the pot wrong or did I cue it wrong.

Are there any good ways that I can prove to myself that my cueing is getting better without doing long blues? For me I have always found straight shots hard, I am a pretty good pool player and still find straight shots there hard even though I hardly miss any other pot in pool.

Thanks

[jonny66]

There's this, you can buy one from J6UK on here, if he still makes them. Or just make one yourself.

But if you can pot most things on a pool table you can obviously aim. If you miss long blues it's cueing, there isn't any aiming to do.

[Derek P]

If your missing long blues and don't like them that tell's me that's the very thing you need to work on.
They are one of my strengths as i practiced them until it became that way at one point i was lucky if i could pot 2 in a row.

Now I'll work more on awkward starter ball shots or recovery style pots as these are my current weaknesses if I improve these then my asset of good straight cueing and tight positional play will translate everything into more consistent scoring if I only worked my strenghts I would miss all those balls that I'm bad at see my point?

Work the weaknesses more than the strenghts and eventually it will become your strength and make you a better player.

Trying to assess your actual problem for jawing the blue's over the internet is hard obviously for a coach and I'm not one but would suggest you need to work on your delivery of the cue more to get that action ironed in something is off in your grip, alignment, timing or movement or something.

[MrRottweiler]

When faced with a long blue the chances are you should avoid going for the pot because that is a recovery shot so it needs weighing up. Chances are you've run out of position and need a long blue to keep the break going but there comes a time when you have to know when to fold 'em and produce a good safety shot instead.

For practice routines to help aiming I've always put the cueball on the brown spot and played it down the table over the blue, pink and black spots to come back the same way and then make it harder by cuing from the cushion directly behind the brown spot. I had one lesson with Karen Corr at the Windmill club in Rushden and she did this as an example to me which I repeated and I made the cueball go down the table and come back to hit the cue tip in a perfect line twice. She commented how I was doing the excercise better than her

[inevermissblue]

Hey guys,

I had a few coaching lessons and he sorted out my technique pretty well and I have been practising lots. I am much more consistent now over short to mid distances but once I am in to long potting territory I am terrible. I want to keep improving my straight cueing but I am not really a fan of doing long blues, I mean just a slight difference in aiming will throw the blue off anyway and I think did I aim the pot wrong or did I cue it wrong.

Are there any good ways that I can prove to myself that my cueing is getting better without doing long blues? For me I have always found straight shots hard, I am a pretty good pool player and still find straight shots there hard even though I hardly miss any other pot in pool.

Thanks

Try a few shots with no preliminary addresses. Just aim and strike. If you consistently pot the ball then you are already online. So your feathers may be altering your line of aim to offline. If you miss then you aren't finding the correct line. After all, there are 2 shot perspectives...the relationship between object ball and cueball, and cue to cueball.

[vmax]

Start off with slow ones then build up the pace, film yourself on your phone and look for body/head movement as the speed builds up. You could find that you're changing your stance/cue action for certain shots.

[kent mitchell]

The best advice i can give is just keep practicing the same shot for roughly 25 minutes a week ( a bit tedious but it will improve your shot).

[screwball]

Try setting up a perfectly straight shot but with the cueball and object ball only 2 inches apart. When you get down on the shot you should be able to see if your cue tip is pointing directly at the centre of the object ball, ie perfect alignment. If not, make an adjustment. Pocket 10 balls in a row to the very centre of the pocket and then start increasing the distance between cueball and object ball by 1 inch increments.

[chas6868]

If straight in are hard your not cueing it right.
A straight in shot is the number one shot to work on for you cueing.
Set up easier straight in than long blues
Mark the table with chalk so it the same shot every time and try and pot it but also run the white into the same pocket.
Work hard on this and you will soon see improvement.
Talking about 50 plus shots at this.

[jonny66]

If you set up an easy straight pot and just try to make the white stop completely dead, if it goes a little to the left or right you haven't hit it right. It has to be completely straight though.

[andy 7671]

Would looking at the position of your follow through help...? I don't know myself. If the balls are straight and your follow through ends with tip pointing to middle of pocket ...